The Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing

If you own a business, chances are you’ve heard of digital marketing by now. If you don’t know where to begin don’t worry. We’ve compiled some of your most burning questions around digital marketing and provided the answers below.

What is digital marketing?

You’re already way more familiar with digital marketing than you think. Chances are you encounter it every single day. Digital marketing is any type of marketing that uses technology (mainly the internet) to reach an audience. Platforms for digital marketing include display ads, mobile text-messaging, search engine optimization and everything in between.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is any type of marketing that is sent digitally to a consumer’s email inbox with the intent to advertise a product or service. There are several different categories of email marketing including transactional emails (like receipts or confirmations), email drip campaigns (a series of messages to a predetermined list that gets smaller and more strategically focused as time goes on), mobile email marketing (special consideration for smartphone advertising) and many more, each with its own purpose, benefits and best practices.

What is search marketing?

Search engine marketing, also known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), is the practice of getting your website or landing page to be the top search result for a specific word or phrase that is both commonly entered by your target audience. The word or phrase is usually directly related to your product. Search engine marketing is all organic, meaning it’s traffic does not come from paid ads but from your website’s natural adherence to search engine best practices and the production of consistent, high quality content over a period of time.

What is social media marketing?

You’re probably already familiar with the big names in social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) but social media marketing encompasses any digital platform that primarily functions as a system to connect people. Each platform offers a variety of paid and unpaid strategies for growing an audience of followers, friends, or whatever term is used to indicate reach.

What do I need to get started in digital marketing?

The foundation of any digital marketing strategy is built on solid brand design. Having your brand materials beautifully designed and in place before launch is critical to any campaign. Launching at 80% is not a concept that should be applied here because creating a strong first impression could skyrocket your profits sooner than later.

What should my first steps be?

As we’ve already mentioned, your first priority with digital marketing should be to establish a set of high quality branding materials. To do that, consider hiring a graphic designer or signing up for Delesign’s unlimited monthly graphic design service.